John Adams

"I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy," wrote John Adams, who devoted his considerable energy, tenacious intellect, and eloquent pen to his country's service. A powerful polemicist, leading member of the Continental Congress, brilliant constitutional theorist, and tireless diplomat, Adams was a figure of towering importance during the birth of the American republic. Now, in a two-volume edition charting his education, early career, courtship and marriage, and experience of the American Revolution from the earliest stirrings of discontent in 1761 to his negotiation of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, The Library of America presents the first comprehensive selection of Adams's vitally important writing for the general reader.

This second volume contains 191 letters, essays, reports, resolutions, and memoranda written by John Adams between 1775 and 1783, along with extensive selections from his diary for this period and selected passages from his unfinished autobiography recalling his service in the Continental Congress and in Europe during the American Revolution. Included are Thoughts on Government (1776), the pamphlet that shaped many of the state constitutions established after independence, and all of the "Letters from a Distinguished American" and "Replies to Hendrik Calkoen," crucial essays Adams wrote in 1780 to influence European views of the newly independent United States and create a framework for postwar international relations. Also included is the "Report of a Constitution for Massachusetts," Adams's 1780 blueprint for what remains the world's oldest working political charter. Throughout, in revealing excerpts from his diary and in his characteristically warm and frank letters, especially those to his "dearest friend" Abigail, Adams recounts the debate in Congress over independence (he was "our Colossus on the floor," remembered Thomas Jefferson), the struggles to establish the fledgling government of the United States and supply its army in the field, and the intrigues and frustrations of diplomatic service.

This volume features a chronology of Adams's life, an essay on the texts, explanatory notes, and an index. It is published with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Bodman Foundation.

Gordon S. Wood is Professor Emeritus of History at Brown University and the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Radicalism of the American Revolution and Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic 1789-1815.